Is monosodium glutamate an organic molecule?

Answer 1

Yes, organic chemistry is defined by some as "The chemistry of carbon." and monosodium glutamate not only contains carbon, but glutamic acid, from which monosodium glutamate is made, is one of the 20 or so amino acids that all animals and plants must have to live.

By definition, an amino acid contains a carboxylic acid group and an amine group. All of the amino acids used by plants and animals are alpha amino acids because the amine functionality is attached to the alpha carbon; the carbon adjacent to the carbonyl carbon. Glutamic acid happens to have two carboxylic acid groups (but still only one amine group). If a solution of glutamic acid is allowed to react with a dilute solution of sodium hydroxide until the mixture is within the correct and narrow pH band, then the vast majority of the amino acid will exist in the monosodium form.

Personally, I don't consider compounds such as diamond, graphite, and the carbides, such as boron carbide or silicon carbide, organic compounds since no life-form uses or produces those compounds. Others disagree.